Single tube competitive PCR for quantitation of CMV DNA in the blood of HIV + and solid organ transplant patients

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in transplant and HIV-infected patients. However, CMV can also cause asymptomatic infection. An elevated blood viral load as assessed by various methods appears to be a predictor for symptomatic infections, and can be used to identify patients at the highest risk of developing CMV disease. We developed a single tube competitive quantitative PCR assay for CMV DNA, using as a competitor a plasmid carrying the target sequence for amplification with an internal deletion. The analysis of data from repeated extractions and amplifications of samples showed that the coefficient of variation of the assay was typically less than 20%. Clinical samples from 14 HIV-infected and 13 solid organ transplant patients were analyzed. Widely varying CMV DNA levels were found in leukocytes, with a positive correlation with the measure of infectivity in the leukocytes by quantitative culture on fibroblasts. The highest CMV DNA content in leukocytes was found in two patients with presumptive CMV disease. In HIV patients, the amount of DNA in leukocytes was much larger than in solid organ transplant recipients, when standardized for infectivity. Although based on a very limited number of patients, this observation probably points to a difference in the biology of CMV infection in these two categories of susceptible individuals. CMV DNA was also found in the plasma of some of the patients with a high CMV DNA leukocyte load. The present test should be useful for identifying patients at high risk of developing CMV disease, for monitoring therapeutic efficacy of antiviral regimens and to improve the understanding the pathogenesis of CMV infection.